CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association has extended the season for several fall sports, choosing to do so after the impact of Hurricane Helene on the western part of the state.
The NCHSAA’s Board of Directors approved the changes Wednesday morning.
“Changes to the fall calendar are difficult as well as complex but necessary,” said NCHSAA President Stephen Gainey and NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker in a joint statement. “Keeping our student-athletes safe as we try to minimize risk of injury was central to any decisions made. We commend the work of the NCHSAA staff in its research, the Board of Directors in making time to consider these changes and the willingness of our host partners to accommodate any changes and make their venues available.”
Sunday practices and competitions will remain prohibited for all NCHSAA schools.
As a special provision, the board also approved for one additional contest to be allowed in sports that have a season limit, under the conditions of: the contest has prior approval from the NCHSAA; it cannot exceed daily or weekly limitations; it must exceed the season limit (i.e. be an additional game) for both schools; and cannot be entered into MaxPreps, so not to affect RPI standings. This would appear to give schools in non-storm-affected areas the option to play an extra game during the days in which the regular season has been extended, should they choose to do so to avoid a span of several days between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.
While the start of the playoffs will be pushed back by as much as one week in some sports, the regular-season impact to Robeson County schools is likely to be minimal. Western North Carolina schools, however, will use that extra time to play makeup contests and complete as much as possible of their schedules after many schools were unable to play for days or weeks after Helene hit the area Sept. 26-27.
Football
The state playoffs in football will be pushed back by one week, with a reporting deadline of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 for all regular-season results; this deadline was originally Nov. 1.
Playoff seeding and matchups will be announced on Nov. 10 before the first round of the state playoffs on Nov. 15. Each successive round will still be one week after the previous round, with state championships will now be played Dec. 20-21.
The state will require three calendar days (72 hours) between contests, which may impact scheduling for some western schools as they try to make up games from recent weeks affected by Helene and its aftermath.
Boys soccer
The boys soccer postseason schedule was also bumped back one week, with the reporting date changed from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6. Seeding and brackets will be released Nov. 7 before the first round of the state playoffs on Nov. 9. Regionals are Nov. 19 with the state championships scheduled for Nov. 22-23.
The weekly limitation of three matches has been modified to allow schools to play multiple makeup matches in a week, not to exceed four total matches. No change was made to daily limitations.
Volleyball
Volleyball’s reporting deadline was pushed back three days, from Oct. 16 to Oct. 19, with seeding scheduled for Oct. 20.
The state playoffs will begin on Oct. 22, with regionals on Oct. 31 and the state championships on Nov. 2.
Weekly limitations have been modified to allow for up to eight matches in a week.
Girls tennis
The reporting deadline for individual girls tennis results was pushed back to 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 14; it was originally 3 p.m. that day, and this change will allow for an additional day of competition for those who need it. Individual regionals will be held Oct. 18-19 and the state championship tournaments will be Oct. 25-26.
The dual team girls tennis reporting deadline was pushed back one week, from Oct. 10 to Oct. 17, with seeding scheduled for Oct. 18. The state playoffs will begin Oct. 21, with regionals on Nov. 5 and state championships on Nov. 9.
Cross country
The reporting deadline for cross country was pushed back three days to Oct. 22, from Oct. 19. Regionals will be held Oct. 26 with the state championships set for Nov. 2.
Girls golf
No scheduling changes were made for girls golf, but instead the NCHSAA made a change to the qualification process for regional championships.
The minimum of nine-hole scores required to qualify for regionals was reduced from five to three.
Regionals remain scheduled for Oct. 21-22 and state championships will be played Oct. 28-29. The reporting deadline is Oct. 16.
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